Sometime in the middle of the night, her sinuses decided to clear. And they did so with a vengeance.

Kensi found herself awake most of the night, using tissue after tissue after tissue. By the time her nose finally stopped draining, she'd gone through a whole box of Kleenex plus half a roll of toilet paper.

But the pressure in her head was gone, she could breathe well again, and her nausea was a fading memory.

In fact, the only thing still keeping her in bed so late in the afternoon was her complete lack of sleep during the night.

She got up once to use the bathroom and get a drink of water, but as soon as her head hit the pillow again, she was out like a light.

The second time she woke, it was already getting dark outside again and she realized she hadn't seen or heard from Deeks yet.

She stumbled out of bed and headed for the living room, rubbing a hand over her tired eyes.

"Sleeping Beauty finally emerges from her coma."

She smiled at the sound of his voice. "How long have you been here?" she asked, sitting to face him with her feet pulled up onto the couch cushion.

"A couple of hours," he answered casually. "You were sleeping like the dead when I checked on you — I had to make sure you were still breathing."

"I was awake all night cramming Kleenex up my nose," she told him. "I don't think I even got to sleep until about eight o'clock this morning."

"Well, you sound a lot better…" His gaze swept over her. "…and dare I say you look a lot better, too," he added with a cheeky grin. "How do you feel?"

She inhaled deeply. "I feel almost human again. I think your garlic crap actually worked."

"Hey, my garlic crap is a proven tonic," he retorted easily.

Kensi smiled. "Yeah, I guess so." Her gaze fell to a basket of folded clothes on the floor by the coffee table. "You did my laundry?"

"It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it," he quipped.

Kensi chuckled, and stifled a yawn. "Sorry…I guess I'm still tired."

As he had done frequently the last few days, Deeks brought his hand up to her forehead and then down to her cheek. "I think your fever's gone," he said softly.

She could've just imagined it, but she thought she felt his thumb caress her skin for the briefest moment before his hand dropped away. "Yeah," she voiced in agreement. "No more chills, either."

"Nausea?"

"Gone."

"Good." He paused a beat. "Do you want some more garlic broth?"

But she could see that he was only teasing. "If I never taste garlic or broth ever again, it'll still be too soon," she retorted.

Deeks grinned, unoffended. He was glad that she was finally getting well. "Stay home and rest at least one more day," he directed.

Kensi nodded. "Sure."

"I mean it," he said seriously, meeting her eyes. "If I see you at work tomorrow, I'm dragging you home in handcuffs and posting a guard outside your door."

"Aww, I thought you missed your partner," Kensi needled him.

"I do miss my partner," Deeks agreed. "And I don't want her to relapse by going back to work when she's not one-hundred percent yet."

"I've worked through exhaustion before," she reminded him lightly.

"Yeah, but you don't have to," he argued, a stubborn lilt creeping into his voice. "Nobody expects you to prove how tough you are by wearing yourself out."

Kensi rolled her eyes. "Okay, calm down. You don't have to protect me from anything."

He shrugged a shoulder unapologetically. "You're my partner — it's my job to have your back."

"Speaking of partners…" Kensi broached a new topic. "You've still never told me why you swore once not to work with a female partner ever again. Or what changed your mind."

He merely laughed softly and looked away with a funny little smirk, evading having to answer.

She waited. "You're not going to tell me, are you?"

He drew in a deep breath. "Nope."

Kensi regarded at him steadily. "You know partners shouldn't keep secrets from each other, right?"

Deeks countered with, "Well then, by all means — spill your secrets, partner. Feel free to start with the kinky ones."

Her lips pursed. "I don't like this game anymore."

Deeks grinned at her. "Chicken."

But Kensi's retort died on her lips as her stomach growled embarrassingly loud.

"Wow — that sounded like a bear just coming out of hibernation," Deeks couldn't resist.

He earned a stout punch in the shoulder.

"Really? You're back to hitting me?"

Kensi offered a contrite little smile, raising a hand to rub softly at the same spot she'd just struck. "Sorry. Habit."

"It's okay — I know that was just a love-punch."

"And you're about to get another one," she warned playfully.

But Deeks negotiated, "How about I make you some dinner instead?"

"No chicken noodle," Kensi vetoed immediately.

"Pancakes?" he offered instead, knowing she had a preference for them.

She nodded. "I think I could handle a pancake or two."

"Alright." Deeks stood with a grin, giving her basket of clean laundry a deliberate tap with his shoe. "Washed your underwear…now I'm making you pancakes."

"Who knew you were so domestic?" Kensi quipped, her gaze following as he vanished into the kitchen.

Deeks returned a little while later with two plates of hot, buttered pancakes. He handed Kensi one, and started on the other one himself.

They smelled so good, and Kensi really hoped they wouldn't have the same fate as the chicken noodle soup that she'd forced herself to eat the night before.

She took a tentative bite at first, even though she knew that any negative effect would not present itself immediately.

"Are they okay?" Deeks prompted, taking her hesitation to be a question of his cooking skills.

"They're perfect." She took another tasty bite. "I was just thinking I hope they don't come back to haunt me later."

"Well, if they do," Deeks began with a wry smile. "I happened to mop your bathroom floor, so it should be nice and clean for when you fake passing out on it again."

Kensi was both amused by his humor, and embarrassed to learn that he'd done even more of her housework than she'd originally thought.

Somehow she felt like she was taking too much advantage of his charitableness, even though she'd neither asked it nor expected it of him.

In fact, she had to remind herself that Deeks had volunteered — even insisted — on being actively involved in her recovery from the flu.

He'd been willing to brave her nasty flu germs and risk infection himself, just to help her get better sooner. No one else had ever done that kind of thing for her.

Kensi lowered her plate to her lap and looked at Deeks for a long moment.

"What?" he asked.

"Thank you," she answered sincerely. "For everything."

Four little words, but they spoke volumes. And her partner was quite skilled at reading between lines.

A cute smile appeared on his handsome face. "You're welcome."

Kensi mirrored his smile before glancing back down at her plate to finish off her pancakes.

They finished their dinner in comfortable silence and nested the forks and empty plates together on the coffee table.

"Is it safe to say the pancakes were a success?" Deeks asked after a while.

"So far, so good," Kensi responded placidly. "But would you mind bringing me a glass of water? I am so thirsty again."

"Not at all," Deeks answered. He snagged the dirty plates as he got up and carried them to the kitchen sink.

He came back with a glass of ice water for her and a bottle of cold beer for himself.

"I have beer?" Kensi asked in surprise.

"Actually, I have beer," Deeks clarified, reclaiming his seat on her couch. "It's just cooling in your fridge."

"Oh."

He glanced at her. "You can have one, if you want."

But she shook her head. "Got my water. I'm good." The beer probably wouldn't have been a good choice for her stomach right now, anyway.

She was overjoyed to have kept her dinner down thus far…but in an odd twist of irony, a small part of her was just a teeny bit disappointed that her flu was going away so soon thanks to Deeks' unorthodox doctoring method.

After three nights, she'd gotten used to his presence in her home and had experienced first-hand how nurturing and serious he could be when he felt that someone needed him.

And now that she was recovering from her bout with the flu and her nightly caregiver's visits were going to come to an end…Kensi found that she really didn't want to let go of it just yet.

That was silly, she thought. She didn't need a babysitter. And as soon as she was back to normal, they'd be working side-by-side again every day. And probably going out for a beer together every couple of nights, too.

She was looking forward to getting back into her daily groove of being an NCIS agent. Being out sick was the pits.

A sudden chill hit her, and Kensi reached for a nearby blanket. "I guess the chills aren't completely gone yet."

Deeks automatically offered a helping hand, tucking the material loosely around her.

"A girl could get used to this, you know," she commented offhand. "Having someone around to wait on her hand and foot, and do her every bidding."

"Wait — doesn't that go against Kensi Blye's mantra?" Deeks interjected. " 'Cuddle me, but don't coddle me'?"

"I don't mind a little coddling," Kensi rebutted. "As long as it's not patronizing."

"Well, I promise never to patronize you," Deeks replied in a serious tone.

"Thank you."

He added mischievously, "As long as you promise to cuddle me every now and then."

She gave him a look, unable to keep from smiling. "Just had to throw that in there, huh?"

He grinned smugly, tipping his beer bottle up to his lips.

Kensi rolled her eyes, taking a sip from her water glass. The man was incorrigible.

Deeks set his empty beer bottle on the coffee table and checked his wristwatch. "Getting pretty late," he voiced. "I should probably go. Gotta work tomorrow."

Kensi nodded, covering a small yawn. "I think I'll turn in, too."

Out of habit, Deeks trailed her to the bedroom to say goodnight. He waited in the doorway as she crawled into her bed and then flipped the light switch.

"Goodnight," he said to the darkness.

"Goodnight," her voice answered.

He decided to leave the rest of the beer he'd stashed in her fridge, and he was almost at her front door when a strange feeling washed over him.

Huh. Vertigo. Odd sensation.

The room began to tilt, and he grabbed for the couch to steady himself.

He blinked a few times, but it did nothing to dispel the haze in his eyes or the sudden throbbing in his head.

Oh, crap.

He sank into the couch cushion. Nice couch. Good couch. Oh — stop spinning, couch!

This wasn't fair! He wasn't supposed to get sick too — he had a great immune system!

No — it was just fatigue, he told himself firmly. A really long day that was finally catching up with him.

Determinedly, he stood…and instantly regretted it.

Grumbling in resignation, he laid back on the couch, stretching out and kicking off his shoes so they wouldn't mar the fabric.

He figured he'd earned the right to spend the night on Kensi's furniture, having devoted three nights in a row to the interest of her health.

Deeks sighed. Damn Kensi's flu germs.